Recalling Newark News Writer Howard Garis and His Rabbit

The Newark News, the greatest of
New Jersey's newspapers in the last century, was felled by a lengthy strike and
ceased publication on January 23, 1973.

During its lifetime, many rated
the Newark News superior to the New York Times with a daily circulation of
300,000 copies and a Sunday circulation of 420,000. Its news staff
numbered 250 writers.

One of the most prolific writers
attached to the Newark News staff was Howard R. Garis. This is a
recollection of his life with the News, where he was employed as a reporter.

Garis, born in 1873, had been a
successful writer of children's books during the first decade of the 20th
century. Edward M. Scudder, publisher of the Newark News, had been aware
of Garis's activities as a writer of stories for children, and signed him to
write some stories for children which could be published daily in the Newark
News.

Garis created a batch of stories
about the adventures of a rabbit hero named Uncle Wiggily, a pink-nosed elderly
gentleman bunny, and his friends that included such characters as Baby Bunny,
Skiller Scaller, Alligator, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Scudder loved Garis's stories and
ran the first Uncle Wiggily in the Newark News on January 10, 1910. Uncle
Wiggily instantly caught on, and Garis continued with a daily Uncle Wiggily
story in the Newark News for nearly four decades, one appearing every day except
Sunday -- more than 15,000 in all, until his retirement in 1947. His Uncle
Wiggily stories were nationally syndicated and appeared in papers from coast to
coast.

While writing for the Newark News,
Garis continued writing juvenile books as well and, according to his entry in
the Encyclopedia Britannica, he wrote about 500 books.

Garis's book-writing activities
were far more prolific than his Uncle Wiggily writings.

Under various pen names, as well
as under his own name, he wrote for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, established by
Edward Stratemeyer, a Newark native, a close personal friend, and a former
writer for the Newark Sunday Call.

Among Garis books published by the
Stratemeyer Syndicate were the first 35 Tom Swift books...stories about Tom
Swift and his fabulous inventions. All 35 were written under the pen name
"Victor Appleton."

The first Tom Swift book, one of
six he wrote in 1910, was "Tom Swift and his Motor-Cycle."

In lieu of royalties, Garis was
paid a flat $125.00 per book, which in that era, was the equivalent of two
months pay.

Garis wrote books under a variety
of other pen names. As Lester Chadwick, he wrote the stories of Baseball
Joe...as Roy Lockwood, he wrote the Great Marvel series...As Clarence Young, he
wrote volumes 1, 2, and 8 of the "Motor Boys" series.

Garis also wrote the first six
volumes of the "X Bar X" series for boys under his own name between
1926 and 1928. He also wrote most of the volumes of the following series:
College Sports, Larry Dexter, and Dick Hamilton.

Garis was a major contributor to
the long-running Bobbsey Twins series. After Edward Stratemeyer, head of
the Stratemeyer Syndicate, had launched the series under the publisher-assigned
author name of "Laura Lee Hope" for the entire series, Howard Garis's
wife, Lillian McNamara Garis wrote volumes 4 to 28, and later, volume 41.

Garis' numerous contributions to
the Stratemeyer Syndicate ended in 1933 as a result of a disagreement with the
Syndicate's then operators, Harriet S. Adams and Edna C. Stratemeyer.

Garis died in 1962 at the age of
89 1.

Starting with "Uncle Wiggily
and His Friends," collections of Uncle Wiggily stories also appeared in
book form and sold millions of copies. They continue to be big sellers,
especially on the internet.